The Ultimate Guide To Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Sometimes choosing curriculum is the basic, overwhelming task facing families each academic year. This Ultimate Guide to Choosing Homeschool Curriculum comes alongside you, offering many resources. This homeschool advice is gathered from our archives here at Curriculum Choice, from the wisdom of our team of review authors and from fellow homeschoolers around the web.

Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Begin By Defining Your Beliefs and Philosophies

“I search for items that line up with our purpose for homeschooling, and trust God to lead me. Yes, the academics are important, but when I consider our goals, getting an A in calculus isn’t top priority.” I want my children to have godly character. I want my children to know how to think and reason. I want my children to grow in responsibility and self-government.

What kind of homeschooler are you?Tips for defining yourself…“When you meet another homeschooler, some of the first questions asked are, “What curriculum do you use?” and “What kind of homeschooler are you?” To new homeschoolers, this can be completely overwhelming and finding your options can literally drown you in information. “

Determining How Your Child Learns Best. In the school for animals, “An old story tells of the creation of a school for the animals. In this school, everybody took the same four courses: flying, swimming, climbing, and running.”

Common Teaching Approaches. “All home schooling materials fall into two main categories: traditional textbook curricula and non-textbook curricula.”

Developing an Educational Philosophy. “There are four educational philosophies influencing home schooling today. Think of these philosophies as the underlying assumptions about what comprises an education and what the teaching materials should cover in a course of study.”

Consider Advice From Veterans

In the Homeschooler’s Simple Guide to Choosing Curriculum at Heart of the Matter, 16-year veteran homeschooler says, ” you do not live in a curriculum ad or vendor hall. You live in your home, with your living, breathing, mess-making, sinful children. And they don’t read curriculum catalogs. So … what’s a mom to do in the face of all the shiny promise of advertisements which sing their siren songs every spring? How are you to determine which curriculum will be right for your family, come the reality of fall?”

Barb-Harmony Art Mom, fellow review author, has a mental checklist she employs in Deciding on Resources. Ten things to consider, including, “Will the books and plans allow us to be flexible? and Is there a product out there that will mentor my sons in an area of their interest that I don’t feel qualified to tackle on my own?”

Curriculum Choices for a Kinesthetic Learner at Hodgepodge. “She loves to make things. Do things. Move. Participate. Give her a display board for a biography report. Let her make a salt dough map. She loves to color while I read. Crafts, creations, busy. That’s her.” Plus organizational ideas to meet the needs of this type learner.

I shared my Planning and Goal Setting annual habit for choosing resources and setting goals for each of my five children at Habits for a Happy Home. “I bring along my current favorite spiral notebook and pen. And I rise early and meet with the Lord over matters.” This time is key for considering the big picture before specific curriculum choices.

Kris also has a 10 Days series entitled: Homeschooling 101. In her post, How to Homeschool: Choosing Curriculum, she challenges homeschoolers to consider: “What curriculum do you use? What curriculum could you not live without? What curriculum didn’t work for you?“

Choosing Math Curriculum

Math, All Roads Lead to Algebra from Kim at Habits for a Happy Home. “At the end of the day, when your children arrive in eighth grade, in which grade they learned a concept or which method you used to teach the concept doesn’t matter. What matters is that they have now grasped it and are ready for algebra.”

Creating Your Own Resources

Review author, Daniele at Domestic Serenity has wonderful advice on creating book lists for children — for those who create their own lists, whether classical, Charlotte Mason, delight-led learning or another homeschooling type: Building Booklists for Children.

General Curriculum Choices Help

Fear Not, Trust and Rejoice by Sherri Johnson at Habits for a Happy Home: “At times like these, it’s easy to feel like you’re making a mistake. Like you’re not qualified to teach your children. Like you’d rather send them to school and just do homework with them in the evenings because you’re afraid you’re going to mess them up.”

Homeschooling for 17 years now, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children. She shares a mixture of free art lessons, recipes and helpful homeschool habits at Hodgepodge. Her husband, Steve, also writes reviews here at Curriculum Choice.

With nearly two decades of homeschooling, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children. She has seen the fruits of home education with two grads so far! With their You ARE an artist art curriculum she and her family are passionate about growing a love of art. She also shares helpful homeschool habits at Hodgepodge. She and her husband, Steve, are owners of The Curriculum Choice.

Comments

THIS is truly a fantastic post – great for new and experienced homeschool families. I love the way you pulled in various topics and truly the Principle Method – I am learning more and more about it and we lean more in that direction than in any other…..Many Will be blessed by this!

Understanding different personality types and their learning styles by Briggs Meyers has helped me. But whole brain teaching reaches all children, and is especially great for active children, hands on learners and children with learning disabilities.

Hi Tricia, this is an excellent read. What I have been searching for is the good resources which I can use for home-schooling my kids and I specifically liked the section in which you talked about ‘Creating your own resources’. I am going to try the Daniel and Penny books you have mentioned in the article. I hope I will be a very helpful dad to my children. Thanks a lot again for so much information in detail, cheers!

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We are a veteran group of home educators with a mission – to spread the word about our favorite curricula and help YOU make informed decisions for your homeschool. Meet the review authors and browse the homeschooling tips they share!